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g  jg|  THE  RHODE  ISLAND  STATUES  IN  THE  CAPITOL. 

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REMARKS 

\      o 


HON.  HENRY  B.  ANTHONY, 


ON    THE 


PRESENTATION  OF  THE  STATUE  OF  MAJ.  GEN.  GREENE, 
January  20,  1870, 


AND   THE 


PRESENTATION  OF  THE   STATUE   OF   ROGER  WILLIAMS, 
January  9,  1872, 

BY 

THE    STATE    OF    RHODE    ISLAND 


TO 


THE  CONGRESS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


WASHINGTON: 
F.  &  J.  RIVES  &  GEO.  A.  BAILEY, 

REPORTERS  AND  PRINTERS  OF  THE  DEBATES  OF  CONGRESS 

1872. 


tf  LIBRARY 

G^H^ 

The  Khode  Island  Statues  in  the  Capitol. 


HON.  HENRY'  B.  ANTHONY, 


OX   THE 


PRESENTATION  OF  THE  STATUE  OF  MAJ.  GEN.  GREENE,    , 
January  20,  1870, 


AND    THE 


PRESENTATION  OF  THE   STATUE   OF  ROGER  WILLIAMS, 
January  9,  1872, 


BY 


THE    STATE    OF    RHODE    ISLAND 


TO 


THE  CONGRESS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


WASHINGTON: 
P.  &  J.  RIVES  &  GEO.  A.  BAILEY, 

REPORTERS  AND  PRINTERS  OF  THE  DEBATKS  OP  CONGRESS 

1872. 


PRESENTATION 


STATUE  OF  MAJOR  GENERAL  GREENE. 


IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  JANUARY  20,  1870. 


Mr.  President,  I  am  charged — we  are  charged,  ray  colleagues  of  the  two  Houses  of 
Congress  and  myself — by  the  Governor  of  the  State  which  we  represent, with  the  honor- 
able duty  of  presenting  to  Congress,  in  his  name  and  in  the  name  of  the  General  Assembly 
and  the  people  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations,  a  marble  statue 
of  Nathanael  Greene. 

This  statue  has  been  placed  in  the  old  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  pur- 
suance of  an  act  of  Congress,  by  which  that  beautiful  Chamber,  itself  rich  in  precious 
memories,  is  dedicated  to  historic  valor,  to  patriotism,  to  statesmanship,  to  learning,  to 
conspicuous  excellence  in  all  the  elements  that  constitute  national  greatness. 

The  heroic  age  of  our  country  is  enveloped  in  no  fable,  and  the  historian  is  not  driven 
to  doubtful  miracles,  to  marvels  and  portents  to  add  to  the  dignity  of  its  origin,  nor  need 
he  resort  to  fanciful  legends  to  increase  the  interest  of  his  narration.  The  stalwart  men 
who  planted  the  colonies  from  which  these  States  arose  have  left  the  authentic  memorials 
of  their  principles  and  their  actions,  their  trials  and  their  triumphs.  And  the  men  whose 
valor  achieved  the  independence  of  the  country,  and  whose  wisdom  founded  the  institu- 
tions of  the  great  Republic,  are  separated  from  us  by  so  short  a  period,  and  one  of  such 
active  historical  inquiry,  that  their  lives  and  characters  stand  before  us,  almost  as  if  they 
had  lived  in  our  daily  presence. 

By  the  act  of  Congress  referred  to,  each  State  of  the  Union  is  invited  to  place  in  the 
old  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  the  statues  of  two  of  her  illustrious  citizens, 
already  consecrated  by  death,  who  flourished  in  any  period  of  her  history.  Rhode  Island, 
which  has  earliest  responded  to  the  invitation,  has  selected  for  this  honor  two  of  her 
early  heroes,  one  from  the  colonial  and  one  from  the  revolutionary  period. 

The  first  is  Roger  Williams,  the  great  Founder  of  the  State,  who  first  declared  and 
maintained  the  principle  at  the  foundation  of  all  true  civilization,  SOUL  LIBERTY,  the  right 
of  every  man  te  worship  God  according  to  his  own  conscience,  responsible  to  no  human 
laws,  restrained  by  no  interposition  of  Church  or  State.  Of  Roger  Williams  there  exists 
no  portraiture,  nor,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  any  reliable  description  of  his  perston  or  hia 
features.  He  lives,  not  in  the  breathing  marble  or  upon  the  glowing  canvas,  but  immor- 
tal, in  the  everlasting  principle  which  he  first  asserted  and  vindicated,  and  which,  now 
recognized  as  an  essential  part  of  human  society,  was  then  regarded  as  nothing  better 
than  impracticable  and  mischievous  fanaticism.  The  State,  unwilling  that  the  great 
name  of  her  Founder  should  be  unrepresented  in  this  solemn  assemblage  of  fame,  has 
decreed  in  its  commemoration  an  ideal  statue,  made  from  such  scanty  materials  as  tra- 
dition has  supplied.  She  could  do  no  more,  and  she  felt  that  she  should  do  no  less. 

In  this  respect  the  memory  of  Greene  is  more  fortunate.  His  statue  is  from  authentic 
likenesses,  and  represents  him  "  in  his  habit  as  he  lived,"  in  the  full  prime  and  vigor  of 
his  manhood,  and  in  the  height  of  his  fame.  It  was  executed  by  Henry  Kirke  Browne, 


whose  name,  already  of  high  reputation,  will  receive  fresh  honors  from  his  latest  work. 
As  a  product  of  American  art  it  is  confidently  submitted  to  the  judgment  of  criticism. 

Mr.  President,  we  have  just  passed  through,  not  yet  altogether  through,  the  severest 
trial  in  the  historyof  our  country.  The  popular  heart  beatshigh  with  grateful  admiration 
for  valor  and  conduct  proved  in  the  field,  for  wisdom  displayed  in  the  cabinet.  The 
country  joyfully  decorates  her  heroes  with  her  freshest  laurels,  and  heaps  upon  her 
soldiers  and  statesmen  her  selectest  honors.  We,  Senators,  interpreting  the  will  of  the 
nation,  have  been  prompt  to  render,  from  this  Chamber,  our  contributions  to  the 
national  gratitude.  And  it  is  right  that  it  should  be  so.  The  Republic  is  stronger  as 
well  as  juster  when  thus  honoring  her  defenders,  and  presenting  such  rewards  to  the 
emulation  of  the  rising  generation. 

But  while  we  render  all  due  honor  to  living  valor,  while  we  proudly  hand  over  to  the 
Muse  of  History  the  mighty  names  that  have  illustrated  our  recent  annals,  it  is  well  to 
freshen  the  recollection  of  those  whose  fame  she  has  long  had  in  her  keeping.  While 
we  celebrate  the  praises  of  those  who  have  saved  the  country,  let  us  not  forget  those 
without  whom  we  should  not  have  had  a  country  to  be  saved ;  those  who,  in  the 
beginning,  few  in  numbers,  feeble  in  power,  scant  of  resources,  but  strong  in  the  prin- 
ciples which  they  had  inherited  with  their  oppressors,  armed  with  the  stern  virtues  that 
are  born  of  difficulty  and  nurtured  in  peril  and  privation,  dared  to  defy  the  might  of 
England,  who  trod  the  pathway  of  victory  with  bleeding  feet  and  upheld  the  banner  of 
independence  with  hands  that  were  wasted  by  famine. 

While  the  names  of  Vicksburg,  Fort  Donelson,  and  Roanoke  Island,  South  Mountain, 
and  Antietam,  and  Gettysburg,  and  Appomattox,  should  be  kept  fresh  in  the  memory 
of  the  country,  let  not  the  earlier  glories  of  Lexington,  and  Bunker  Hill,  of  Princeton, 
and  Trenton,  and  Stony  Point,  of  Cowpens  and  Eutaw  Springs,  of  Saratoga  and  York- 
town,  be  ever  forgotten  ;  nor  yet  those  of  Chippewa,  Plattsburg,  and  New  Orleans. 

Among  those  who,  in  the  revolutionary  period,  won  titles  to  the  national  gratitude 
never  disavowed,  he  whose  statue  we  have  placed  in  the  Capitol  stands,  in  the  judgment 
of  his  contemporaries  and  by  the  assent  of  history,  second  only  to  the  man  who  towers, 
without  a  peer,  in  the  annals  of  America. 

1  shall  not  attempt  an  analysis  of  his  character,  nor  an  enumeration  of  the  great 
deeds  upon  which  his  fame  securely  rests;  nor  shall  I  discuss  that  fertility  of  resources 
by  which  he  supplied  an  army  from  an  impoverished  country,  without  disaffecting  the 
population,  that  marvelous  skill  and  conduct,  by  which  he  wrung  the  results  of  victory 
from  the  very  jaws  of  defeat,  and  with  inferior  forces  drove  and  scattered  before  him  a 
well-appointed,  disciplined  enemy,  flushed  with  the  insolence  of  conquest;  that  self- 
reliance  and  persistence  by  which  he  refused  every  suggestion  to  abandon  the  southern 
campaign,  and  from  the  field  of  disaster  declared  "I  will  recover  the  Carolinas  or  perish 
hrthe  attempt."  How  well  he  proved  these  words  no  idle  boast,  how  well  he  kept  his 
pledge  I  do  not  propose  to  repeat.  All  this  has  been  recently  done  by  an  abler  hand. 
A  literary  monument,  more  durable  than  marble,  destined  to  a  permanent  place  in  the 
literature  of  the  language,  has  just  been  completed  to  his  memory,  by  one  who  inherits 
his  blood  and  his  name,  and  whose  pen  is  worthy  of  his  grandfather's  sword. 

But  I  cannot  refrain  from  bringing  to  the  attention  of  the  Senate  some  passages  from 
the  eulogium  pronounced  upon  General  Greene,  by  Alexander  Hamilton,  before  the 
society  of  the  Cincinnati.  It  was  expected  that  Washington  would  be  present,  but 
illness  kept  him  away;  but  there  were  many  there  who  hud  served  with  the  orator  and 
with  the  departed  chief.  No  man  was  better  fitted  than  Hamilton  to  discuss  the 
character  and  services  of  Greene.  No  audience  was  better  fitted  to  judge  of  the  justness 
of  the  estimate  which  he  put  upon  them: 

"  From  you  who  knew  and  loved  him  I  fear  not  the  imputation  of  flattery,  or  enthusiasm,  when 
I  indulge  an  expectation  that  the  name  of  Greene  will  at  once  awaken  in  your  minds  the  images 
of  whatever  is  noble  and  estimable  in  human  nature.  The  fidelity  of  the  portrait  I  shall  draw  will 
therefore  have  nothing  to  apprehend  from  your  sentence.  But  I  dare  not  hope  that  it  will  meet 
with  equal  justice  from  all  others;  or  lhat  it  will  entirely  escape  the  cavils  of  ignorance  and  the 
shafts  of  envy.  For  high  as  this  (treat  man  stood  in  the  estimation  of  his  country,  the  whole  extent 
of  his  worth  was  little  known.  The  situations  in  which  he  has  appeared,  though  such  as  would 
have  measured  the  faculties  and  exhausted  the  resources  of  men  who  might  justly  challenge  the 
epithet  of  great,  were  yet  incompetent  to  the  full  display  of  those  various,  rare,  and  exalted  endow- 
ments, with  which  nature  only  now  and  then  decorates  a  favorite,  as  if  with  intention  to  astonish 
mankind. 

"As  a  man,  the  virtues  of  Greene  are  admitted;  as  a  patriot,  he  holds  a  place  in  the  foremost  rank; 
as  a  statesman,  he  is  praised ;  as  a  soldier,  he  is  admired.  But  in  the  two  last  characters,  especially 
in  the  last  but  one,  his  reputation  falls  far  below  his  desert.  It  required  a  longer  life,  and  still  greater 
opportunities,  to  have  enabled  him  to  exhibit,  in  full  day,  the  vast,  I  had  almost  said  the  cnonnou* 
powers  of  his  mind. 

"The  termination  of  the  American  war — not  too  soon  for  his  wishes,  nor  for  the  welfare  of  his 
country,  but  too  soon  for  his  glory— put  an  end  to  his  military  career.  The  sudden  termination  of 


his  life  cut  him  off  from  those  scenes  which  the  progress  of  a  novf,  immense,  and  unsettled  empire 
could  not  fail  to  open  to  the  complete  exertion  of  that  universal  and  pervading  genius  which  qual- 
ified him  not  less  for  the  Senate  th;m  for  the  field. 

"In  forming  our  estimate,  nevertheless,  of  his  character,  we  are  not  left  to  supposition  and  con- 
jecture, we  are  not  left  to  vague  indications  or  uncertain  appearances,  which  partiality  might 
varnish  or  prejudice  discolor.  \V"e  have  a  succession  of  deeds,  as  glorious  as  they  are  unequivocal, 
to  attest  the  greatness  and  perpetuate  the  honors  of  his  name."  * 

"He  was  not  long  there  before  the  discerning  eye  of  the  American  Fabius  marked  him  out  as  the 
object  of  his  confidence. 

"His  abilities  entitled  him  to  a  preeminent  share  in  the  councils  of  his  chief.  Ho  gained  it,  and 
ho  preserved  it,  amid  all  the  checkered  varieties  of  military  vicissitude,  and  in  defiance  of  all  the 
intrigues  of  jealous  and  aspiring  rivals. 

"As  long  as  the  measures  which  conducted  us  safely  through  the  first  most  critical  stages  of  the 
war  shall  be  remembered  with  approbation ;  as  long  as  the  enterprises  of  Trenton  and  Princeton 
shall  be  regarded  as  the  dawnings  of  that  bright  day  which  afterward  broke  forth  with  such  resplen- 
dent luster;  as  long  as  the  almost  m;igic  operations  of  the  remainder  of  the  memorable  winter,  dis- 
tin*uished  not  more  by  these  events  than  by  the  extraordinary  spectacle  of  a  powerful  army 
straitened  within  narrow  limits  by  the  phantom  of  a  military  force,  and  never  permitted  to  trans- 
gress those  limits  with  impunity,  iu  which  skill  supplied  the  place  of  means,  and  disposition  was 
the  substitute  for  an  army;  as  long,  I  say,  as  these  operations  shall  continue  to  be  tho  objects  of 
curiosity  and  wonder,  so  long  ought  the  name  of  Greene  to  be  revered  by  a  grateful  country. 

"  To  attribute  to  him  a  portion  of  the  praise  which  is  due,  as  well  to  the  formation  as  to  the  execu- 
tion of  the  plans  that  effected  these  important  ends,  can  be  no  derogation  from  that  wisdom  and 
magnanimity  which  knew  how  to  select  and  embrace  councils  worthy  of  being  pursued. 

"  The  laurels  of  a  Henry  were  never  tarnished  by  the  obligations  he  owed  aud  acknowledged  to 
a  Sully." 

After  reviewing  his  service  in  the  Jersey  battles,  the  eulogist  passes  to  the  southern 
campaign,  where  Greene,  by  the  express  selection  of  Washington,  was  placed  iu  com- 
mand: 

"  Henceforth  we  are  to  view  him  on  a  more  exalted  eminence.  He  is  no  longer  to  figure  in  an 
ambiguous  or  secondary  light;  he  is  to  shine  forth  the  artificer  of  his  own  glory — the  leader  of 
armies  and  deliverer  of  States  I"  **********  *** 

"Greene,  without  further  delay,  entered  upon  that  busy,  complicated,  and  extraordinary  scene 
which  may  truly  be  said  to  form  a  phenomenon  in  war— a  scene  which  almost  continually  presents  . 
us,  on  the  one  hand,  with  Tictories  ruinous  to  the  victors;  on  the  other,  with  retreats  beneficial  to 
the  vanquished;  which  exhibits  to  our  admiration  a  commander  almost  constantly  obliged  to 
relinquish  the  field  to  li  is  adversary,  yet  as  constantly  making  acquisitions  upon  him;  beaten  to-day; 
to-morrow,  without  a  blow,  compelling  tho  conqueror  to  remove  the  very  object  for  which  he  had 
conquered,  and  iu  a  manner  to  fly  from  the  very  foe  which  he  had  subdued." 

Speaking  of  the  bold  determination  of  Greene  after  the  battle  of  Guilford  Court- 
House  to  return  to  South  Carolina,  instead  of  going  to  the  rescue  of  Virginia,  threat- 
ened by  a  junction  of  Cornwallis  and  Arnold,  Hamilton  says: 

"This  was  one  of  those  strokes  that  denote  superior  genius  and  constitute  the  sublime  of  war.  It 
Wiis  Bcipio  leaving  Hannibal  in  Italy  to  overcome  him  at  Carthage! 

"The  success  was  answerable  to  the  judicious  boldness  of  thp  design.  The  enemy  were  divested 
of  their  acquisitions  in  South  Carol  in  a  and  Georgia  with  a  rapidity  which,  if  not  ascertained,  would 
be  scarcely  credible.  In  the  short  space  of  two  months  all  their  posts  in  the  interior  of  the  country 
were  reduced.  The  perseverance,  courage,  enterprise,  and  resource  displayed  by  the  American 
General  in  the  course  of  these  events  commanded  the  admiration  even  of  his  enemies.  In  vain  was 
he  defeated  in  one  mode  of  obtaining  his  object;  another  was  instantly  substituted  that  answered 
the  end.  In  vain  was  he  repulsed  from  before  a  besieged  fortress;  he  immediately  found  other 
means  of  compelling  its  defenders  to  relinquish  their  stronghold.  Where  force  failed,  address  and 
stratagem  still  won  the  prize." 

Washington  measured  his  words  with  care  and  was  chary  of  praise.  In  a  letter  to 
Greene,  upon  his  retirement  from  the  office  of  Quartermaster  General,  he  wrote: 

"  You  have  conducted  the  various  duties  of  it  with  capacity  and  diligence,  entirely  to  my  satis- 
faction, and  as  far  as  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  knowing,  with  the  strictest  integrity.  When 
you  were  prevailed  on  to  undertake  the  office  in  March,  1778,  it  was  in  great  disorder  and  confu- 
sion, and  by  extraordinary  exertions  you  so  arranged  it  as  to  enable  the  Army  to  t;ike  the  field  tho 
moment  it  was  necessary,  and  to  move  with  rapidity  after  the  enemy  when  they  left  Philadelphia. 
From  that  period  to  the  present  time  your  exertions  have  been  equally  great.  They  have  appeared 
tome  to  be  the  result  of  system,  and  to  have  been  well  calculated  to  promote  the  interests  and 
honor  of  your  country.  In  fine,  I  cannot  but  add  that  the  States  have  had  in  you,  in  my  opinion, 
an  able,  upright,  and  diligent  servant." 

General  Greene  died  at  the  age  of  forty-four.  What  might  the  country  have  reason- 
ably expected  from  the  full  life  of  the  man  who,  at  so  early  an  age,  had  accomplished 
so  much?  The  administrative  qualities  that  he  manifested  throughout  his  whole  mil- 
itary service  designated  him  for  a  great  civil  career  which,  probably,  would  not  have 
stopped  short  of  the  highest  honors  of  the  Republic.  Bat  a  true  life  is  measured  by 
what  it  accomplishes,  not  by  the  time  that  it  lingers.  He  lived  long  enough  to  secure 
for  his  name  a  place  high  on  the  enduring  records  of  his  country,  forever  in  the  affec- 
tions of  the  American  people. 


6 

On  the  8th  of  August,  1786,  Congress,  on  a  report  of  a  committee  consisting  of  Mr. 
Lee,  Mr.  Pettit,  and  Mr.  Carrington,  adopted  the  following  resolutions: 

"  Resolved,  That  a  monument  be  erected  to  the  memory  of  Nathanael  Greene,  esq.,  at  the  seat  of 
the  Federal  Government  with  the  following  inscription:  'Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Nathanael 
Greene,  esq.,  a  native  of  the  State  of  Khode  Island,  who  died  on  the  19th  of  June,  1786,  late  major 
general  in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  and  commander  of  their  Army  in  the  southern  depart- 
ment." 

"The  United  States  in  Congress  assembled,  in  honor  of  his  patriotism,  valor,  and  ability,  have 
erected  this  monument. 

"Resolved,  That  the  Board  of  Treasury  take  order  for  the  execution  of  the  foregoing  resolution." 

This  measure  of  national  gratitude  was  not  carried  out. 

We  think  that  we  shall  not  be  charged  with  undue  State  pride  if  we  submit  that  the 
marble  which  we  now  present  to  you  is  a  worthy  commencement  of  the  collection  which  it 
inaugurates,  and  which  is  to  hand  down  to  the  future  the  glories  of  the  past,  the  Valhalla 
of  America.  Others  will  be  placed  by  its  side,  worthy  of  the  august  companionship. 
The  future  citizen  will  walk  with  patriotic  awe  among  the  effigies  of  his  country's  grandeur, 
and  gather  inspiration  as  he  surveys  their  venerated  forms.  States  yet  to  be  admitted 
into  the  Union  will  crowd  yonder  Hall  with  the  statues  of  their  founders,  defenders, 
and  benefactors,  till  the  great  Dome  of  the  Capitol  shall  be  too  small  to  cover  the  silent 
assembly  of  our  immortal  dead. 

I  send  to  the  Chair  a  letter  from  the  Governor  of  Rhode  Island,  which  I  ask  to  have 
read. 

The  Secretary  read  as  follows  : 

STATE  OP  RHODE  ISLAND,  EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT, 

PROVIDENCE,  January  3,  1870. 

SIR:  In  accordance  with  a  resolution  of  Congress,  passed  July  2, 1864,-inviting  each  State  to  furnish 
for  the  old  Ilall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  "two  full-length  marble  statues  of  deceased  persons 
who  have  been  citizens  thereof,  and  illustrious  for  their  renown,  or  from  civic  or  military  services, 
such  as  each  State  shall  determine  to  be  worthy  of  national  commemoration,"  the  State  of  Rtuxle 
Island,  by  a  vote  of  its  General  Assembly,  has  caused  to  be  made  two  marble  statues,  one  of  Roger 
Williams, the  Founderof  the  State,  the  other  of  Major  General  Nathanael  Greene,  a  distinguished 
officer  of  the  Army  of  the  Revolution. 

I  have  now  t  he  honor  to  inform  you  that  the  statue  of  Mnjor  General  Nathanael  Greene,  by  Mr.  H.  K 
Browne,  an  American  artist,  is  finished,  and  has  been  forwarded  to  Washington  and  delivered  to 
the  architect  of  the  Cnpitol. 

With  high  respect,  I  have  the  honor  to  remain  your  most  obedient  servant. 

SETH  PADELFORD. 
To  the  PRESIDENT  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  Washington,  D.  C. 


PRESENTATION 


STATUE  OF  ROGER  WILLIAMS, 


IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  JANUARY  9,  1872. 


Mr.  President,  I  had  not  intended  to  interpose  any  remarks,  at  this  time ;  for  although 
it  is  always  an  easy  and  a  pleasant  duty  for  a  Rhode  Island  man  to  discuss  the  character, 
to  recount  the  history,  and  to  celebrate  the  praises  of  the  great  Founder  of  our  State,  I 
have  received  no  intimation,  from  those  who  had  charge  of  the  subject  at  home,  that 
anything  from  me  was  expected  or  desired.  And  yet,  sir,  it  is  hardly  possible  for  a 
Rhode  Island  Senator  to  remain  entirely  silent,  when,  in  this  high  presence,  the  theme 
is  Roger  Williams;  and  I  am  sure  you  will  not  deem  it  an  intrusion  or  an  invasion  of 
the  province  of  my  colleague,  to  whose  abler  hands  this  matter  has  been  committed, 
and  who  has  so  well  performed  the  duty  assigned  to  him,  if  I  detain  you,  very  briefly, 
before  the  question  is  put. 

My  colleague  has  well  said  that  it  was  a  happy  idea  to  convert  the  old  Hall  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  into  the  Pantheon  of  A  merica.  The  idea  originated  with  my  distin- 
guished friend  who  sits  upon  my  right,  [Mr.  MORRILL,  of  Vermont,]  then  a  leading 
member  of  the  House,  as  he  is  now  of  the  Senate.  It  was  indeed  a  happy  idea  to 
assemble  in  the  Capitol  the  silent  effigies  of  the  men  who  have  made  the  annals  of  the 
nation  illustrious ;  that  here,  overlooking  our  deliberations,  inspiring  cmr  counsels,  and 
animating  us  by  their  example,  they  may  seem  to  guard  the  greatness  which  they  founded 
or  defended. 

And  I  do  not  deem  this  proceeding  an  idle  form,  but  rather  a  high  ceremonial  of  the 
Republic ;  and  I  anticipate,  with  a  patriotic  pleasure,  that  it  will  be  repeated,  from  time 
to  time,  until  every  State  shall  have  sent  her  contribution  to  this  assemblage  of  heroes 
and  patriots  and  statesmen  and  orators  and  poets  and  scholars  and  divines — of  men  who, 
in  every  department  of  greatness,  have  added  luster  to  the  American  name.  And  as 
often  as  this  scene  shall  recur,  when  Virginia  shall  send  to  us  the  statue  of  Washington, 
which  cannot  be  too  often  repeated  in  the  Capitol;  and  with  it  that  of  Thomas  Jefferson 
or  of  Patrick  Henry;  when  North  Carolina  shall  send  us  Nathaniel  Macon,  and  South 
Carolina  shall  send  us  Sumter  or  Marion,  and  Georgia  shall  send  us  Oglethorpe  ;  when 
Kentucky  shall  send  us  Daniel  Boone  and  Henry  Clay,  and  Tennessee  shall  send  us 
Andrew  Jackson,  and  Illinois  shall  send  us  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
and  Missouri  shall  send  Thomas  H.  Benton  ;  when  New  York  shall  send  us  Peter 
Stuyvesant  and  Alexander  Hamilton ;  when  Connecticut  shall  send  us  Roger  Sherman 
and  Jonathan  Trumbull — I  believe  they  are  here  already, — I  know  that  the  blood  of  both 
is  represented  in  this  Chamber  by  men  coming  from  States  that  were  not  born  when  the 
names  which  their  Senators  worthily  bear  were  first  made  illustrious ;  when  Vermont 
shall  send  us  the  stalwart  form  of  that  hero  who  thundered  at  the  gates  of  Ticonderoga 
"in  the  name  of  the  Continental  Congress  and  the  great  Jehovah;"  when  New  Jersey 
shall  send  us  the  great  grandfather  of  the  Senator  who  sits  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
7 


UCSB  LIBRARY 


8 

Chamber  [Mr.  STOCKTON*]  and  the  uncle  of  the  Senator  who  sits  nearer  me,  [Mr.  FRE- 
LINGHUYSEX  ;]  when  Pennsylvania  shall  send  us  William  Penn  and  Be-ijamin  Franklin, 
and  when  Massachusetts,  pausing  in  the  embarrassment  of  her  riches,  looking  down  the 
long  list  of  her  sons  who,  in  arms,  in  arts,  and  in  letters,  in  all  the  departments  of 
greatness,  have  contributed  to  her  glory,  shall,  with. hesitating  fingers,  select  two  to 
represent  that  glory  here  ;  then,  and  on  every  such  occasion.  I  trust  that  the  spirit  of  party 
will  cease,  that  the  voice  of  faction  will  be  hushed,  and  that  we  shall  give  an  hour  to  the 
past.  We  shall  be  the  wiser  and  better  for  it. 

In  all  our  history  no  name  shines  with  a  purer  light  than  his  whose  memorial  we  have 
lately  placed  in  the  Capitol.  In  the  history  of  all  the  world  there  is  a  no  more  striking 
example  of  a  man  grasping  a  grand  idea,  at  once,  in  its  full  proportions,  in  all  its 
completeness,  and  carrying  it  out,  unflinchingly,  to  its  remotest  legitimate  results. 

Roger  Williams  did  not  merely  lay  the  foundation  of  religious  freedom,  he  constructed 
the  whole  edifice,  in  all  its  impregnable  strength,  in  all  its  imperishable  beauty.  Those 
who  have  followed  him,  in  the  same  spirit,  have  not  been  able  to  add  anything  to  the 
grand  and  simple  words  in  which  he  enunciated  the  principle,  nor  to  surpass  him  in  the 
exact  fidelity  with  which  he  reduced  it  to  the  practical  business  of  government. 

Religious  freedom,  which  now,  by  general  consent,  underlies  the  foundation  princi- 
ples of  civilized  government,  was,  at  that  time,  looked  upon  as  a  wilder  theory  than  any 
proposition,  moral,  political,  or  religious,  that  has  since  engaged  the  serious  attention 
of  mankind.  It  was  regarded  as  impracticable,  disorganizing,  impious,  and,  if  not 
utterly  subversive  of  social  order,  it  was  not  so  only  because  its  manifest  absurdity  would 
prevent  any  serious  effort  to  enforce  it.  The  lightest  punishment  deemed  due  to  its 
confessor  was  to  drive  him  out  into  the  howling  wilderness.  Had  he  not  met  with  more 
Christian  treatment  from  the  savage  children  of  the  forest  than  he  had  found  from  "the 
Lord's  anointed,"  he  would  have  perished  in  the  beginning  of  his  experiment. 

Mr.  President,  fame,  what  we  call  human  glory,  renown,  is  won  on  many  fields  and  _ 
in  many  varieties  of  human  effort.  Some  clutch  it,  with  bloody  hands,  amid  the  smoke 
and  thunder  of  battle.  Some  woo  it  in  the  quiet  retreats  of  study,  till  the  calm  seclusion 
is  broken  by  the  plaudits  of  admiring  millions,  of  every  tongue  and  of  every  clime. 
Some,  in  contests,  which,  if  not  bloody,  are  too  often  bitter  and  vindictive,  seek  it  in 
the  forum,  amid  "the  applause  of  listening  senates,"  caught  up  and  echoed  back  by 
the  tumultuous  cheers  of  popular  adulation.  All  these  enjoy,  while  they  live,  the 
renown  which  gilds  their  memories  with  unfading  glory.  The  praise  which  attends 
them  is  their  present  reward.  It  stimulates  them  to  greater  exertions  and  sustains 
them  in  higher  flights.  And  it  is  just  and  right. 

But  there  is  a  fame  of  another  kind,  that  comes  in  another  way,  that  comes  unsought, 
if  it  comes  at  all ;  for  the  first  condition  for  those  who  achieve  it  is  that  they  shall  not 
seek  it.  When  a  man.  in  the  communion  of  his  own  conscience,  following  the  lessons 
of  his  own  convictions,  determines  what  it  is  his  duty  to  do,  and,  in  obscurity  and 
discouragement,  with  no  companions  but  difficulty  and  peril,  goes  out  to  do  it — when 
such  a  man  establishes  a  great  principle  of  human  conduct  or  succeeds  in  achieving  a 
great  amelioration  or  a  great  benefit  to  the  human  race,  without  the  expectation  or  the 
desire  of  reward,  in  present  honor  or  in  future  renown,  the  fame  that  shines  a  glory 
around  his  brow  is  a  reflection  from  the  "pure  white  light,"  in  which  the  angels  walk, 
around  the  throne  of  God. 

Such  a  man  was  Roger  Williams.  No  thought  of  himself,  no  idea  of  recompense  or 
of  praise  interfered  to  sully  the  perfect  purity  of  his  motives,  the  perfect  disinterested- 
ness of  his  conduct.  Laboring  for  the  highest  benefit  of  his  fellow-men,  he  was  entirely 
indifferent  to  their  praises.  He  knew,  for  God,  whose  prophet  he  was.  had  revealed  it 
to  him,  that  the  great  principle  for  which  he  contended,  and  for  which  he  suffered, 
founded  in  the  eternal  fitness  of  things,  would  endure  forever.  He  did  not  inquire  if 
his  name  would  survive  a  generation.  In  his  vision  of  the  future,  he  saw  mankind 
emancipated  from  the  thralldom  of  priestcraft,  from  the  blindness  of  bigotry,  from  the 
cruelties  of  intolerance ;  he  saw  the  nations  walking  forth  in  the  liberty  wherewith 
Christ  had  made  them  free ;  he  saw  no  memorial  of  himself,  in  marble  or  in  bronze, 
or  in  the  general  admiration  of  mankind.  More  than  two  centuries  have  passed  since 
he  flourished ;  nearly  two  centuries  have  passed  since  he  died,  buried  like  Moses,  for 
"no  man  knoweth  of  his  sepulcher;"  and  now  the  great  doctrine  which  he  taught 
pervades  the  civilized  world.  A  grateful  State  sends  up  here  the  ideal  image  of  her 
Founder  and  her  Father.  An  appreciative  nation  receives  it,  and,  through  her  accred- 
ited representatives,  pledges  herself  to  preserve  it  among  her  most  precious  treasures. 


